As welding technology and applications have advanced so have the demands on power supply sources and welding systems. These demands have increased with the increased use of welding systems in more rugged environments. In traditional welding systems the welding power supply communicates with the wire feeder via dedicated communication cables. However, these communication cables are susceptible to damage, especially in these rugged environments. Further, the communications add cost and complexity to the welding system and can limited the positioning of the wire feeder relative to the power supply. Efforts have been made to allow for system communication over the power cables, but these efforts use complex communication protocols which can be complex and vulnerable to interference and other issues.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such approaches with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.